Devorah’s contribution to the e-book: Women who follow their dreams, produced by Keti Sharif

I am a Belly dancer. I moved to Europe (Barcelona) from the USA, opened a dance school, developed a teaching method based on movement analysis through sacred geometry, wrote a book on Belly dancing and my method, ‘Sarabi’, which means ‘my mirage’…I actually did attend a private university in Minnesota, thinking that, at the ripe old age of 23 – having already spent 5 years getting surprisingly well paid to perform in Greek and Arabic restaurants in Minneapolis – that it was high time I got serious about starting a ‘real life’. So I spent another 5 years studying, performing at night to pay rent and tuition, until I graduated with a triple major… I had paid for college by shaking my shoulders in a beaded bra top and fancy fringed hip belt!

A lot of people think that Bellydancing is just a shady niche above striptease on the dance ladder, but I know it to be both spiritual and profound. Not only is it a fun and extremely well balanced form of exercise but it can also become a path to inner truth, body consciousness, and a deep understanding of what it is to be a sensual woman.

Now I have a quite chaotic personality, I get side-tracked easily and have never made any 5 year plan or applied any of those time-tested techniques that supposedly guarantee results for happiness on the grand scale. It’s my nature to just go with the flow and let circumstances determine my actions. We can consider the synchronicities that guide our lives – those ‘chance’ happenings that are the very fabric that shape our future, easily appreciated in retrospect but while in the moment, just seem like innocuous daily details – I could fill a whole volume on that subject, considering all the turning points I have had throughout these last 4 decades. So I really believe that I am living out my destiny, without questioning too much what that is, exactly.

I’m not sure exactly at what point I realized that I didn’t need to look for a career, that I already had one…but here and now I am grateful for all of it. I did make some tough choices along the way…for example I am not a mother, and I will probably always wonder if that was right for me, but at 53 I feel mostly satisfied with the ups and downs of my day to day life. I have met and performed with world class artists, travelled to places that I can’t even pronounce correctly, and have shared the beauty of this rich and varied dance form with many thousands of people, a few of whom took the time to show me their appreciation for my performance, which I am truly grateful for.

Often I’ve said, ‘If you really want to be fulfilled, you should look for something to dedicate your life to that you love so much, you would do it for free, even if no one was willing to pay you for it. Then concentrate your time and energy on the doing. It won’t feel like work – you love it!!” That’s how I feel about my work. I’ve done a lot of interviews in which I am asked what is the secret of my success…not quite sure just what that is, as each of us would undoubtedly define it differently. But as an answer is required, I always quote a now deceased friend, who long ago told me this: Success, Devorah, is to discover your place…and then occupy it. Wise words. I’m working on it – with joy!!